Pope forces Knights to retreat after battle over church’s direction

Pontiff asserts control over medieval order, a shot across bows of conservative critics

ROME— It began as a fight over staffing. Then came a dispute about condoms, followed by papal concerns about Freemasons. Now it has become a full-scale proxy war between Pope Francis and the Vatican traditionalists who oppose him, with the battleground being a Renaissance palace on Via dei Condotti, Rome’s most exclusive street.

The palace is the headquarters of the Knights of Malta, the Roman Catholic order founded in the Middles Ages. For months, an ugly spat over staffing simmered behind the order’s walls before spilling across the Tiber River and into the Vatican. Francis and his lieutenants sent angry letters. The Knights ignored them, claiming sovereignty.

Last week, the dispute finally blew up. Fed up, Francis demanded the resignation of the order’s leader and announced that a papal delegate would take his place. Conservatives promptly denounced what they called an illegal annexation and ideological purging by a power-obsessed pontiff, while liberal observers saw the whole episode as resulting from an act of subterfuge by the Pope’s most public critic within the Vatican hierarchy: U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke.

The Knights of Malta is a bastion of Catholic tradition. Until last week, the order was led by the conservative and elaborately titled His Most Emi- nent Highness the Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Matthew Festing of Britain.

Long-building tensions between Festing and the order’s grand chancellor, Albrecht von Boeselager of Germany, escalated in recent months amid accusations that Boeselager had knowingly overseen the distribution of condoms in Africa and Burma as head of the order’s charitable arm, a violation of church rules.

Burke relayed his concerns about Boeselager to Francis.

However, Boeselager denied knowing about the condom-distribution program and refused to step down, considering the move a coup.

Francis backed Boeselager and on Tuesday called Festing to the Vatican and asked for him to step down instead. The order followed with its own statement, saying Festing’s resignation would become official Saturday during a meeting of the order’s councillors.

On Saturday, the councillors reinstated Boeselager and promised to collaborate with the Pope’s delegate.